Lauric fats that are rich in lauric acid typified by coconut oil and palm kernel oil are fats having a bland taste and superior meltability in the mouth, and have been conventionally used as a basic ingredient of oily foods such as chocolates, margarines, shortenings, whipped creams, and ice creams. When a lauric fat is used as a raw fat material of margarines or shortenings, the amount thereof which may be blended is limited since it is disadvantageous in a narrow temperature range that enables appropriate plasticity as a trade-off for superior meltability in the mouth to be provided. Consequently, there exists a dilemma of failure in sufficiently taking advantage of superior meltability in the mouth.
In attempts to make a temperature range broader that enables provision of appropriate plasticity while maintaining superior meltability of a lauric fat in the mouth, techniques of transesterifying a lauric fat and a solid fat including a saturated fatty acid having 16 or more carbon atoms have been known (for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). However, although transesterified fats/oils themselves have favorable meltability in the mouth according to these techniques, meltability in the mouth peculiar to the lauric fat has not yet been exploited satisfactorily under current situations as this meltability is diffused when blended as a basic ingredient of margarines or shortenings with a liquid oil or the like.
In addition, puff pastry margarine in which purity of a triglyceride such as trilaurin or trimyristin is improved, and which has a property exhibiting favorable plasticity up to around 35° C., but which melts rapidly at body temperature was also proposed (for example, Patent Document 3). However, the technique proposed in Patent Document 3 necessitates ester synthesis for increasing the content of lauric acid and myristic acid in triglyceride constituent fatty acids to no lower than 90% by mass (hereafter, “%” as referred to herein indicates “% by mass”), and is thus economically disadvantageous due to difficulty according to processing techniques such as fractionation and transesterification carried out using a natural raw fat material.
Therefore, margarines and shortenings having favorable plasticity, and exploiting properties of a lauric fat have not yet been provided.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. S47-13607    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. S57-74041    Patent Document 3: Japanese Examined Patent Application, Publication No. S48-32164